Bereft of stimulation or routine, they are bored and listless. Even the attraction of hunting Pokémon Go pales after a while.

Rapping teacher creates Pokemon grime track

02:12

Of course everyone needs a break: teachers, pupils, parents, all of us. And it’s lovely to press pause and spend time with the family, but six weeks? Surely a change is long overdue.

In fact, in my mind the only real beneficiaries are school staff.

Yes, I know say they have to work during the school holidays – although interestingly the teaching profession never call strikes during this so-called “work” time

Yet for every teacher that does work, I’ve met plenty over the years who go away for long holidays during the summer. Either they’re keeping their mark books hidden in their beach bags. Or they’re pulling off lesson planning by pool side telepathy.

Lengthy school holidays are an antiquated relic of the Victorian era – a necessity for the agricultural economy of the nineteenth century when schools needed long summer holidays so children could toil in the fields. That hardly applies now as youngsters stupefy and incubate in front of the latest brain-frying games on their mobile phones.

As such having nearly two months off has about as much relevance as the penny farthing.

Striking Liverpool teachers do Icelandic football chant at rally

00:19

In my own home, it’s just my 12 year-old daughter who still needs consideration during the holidays. (My older two are university students whose courses run deep into the summer. My 17 year old has just finished A-levels and is busy preparing for a gap year.)

But long gone are the days when children just “played out”: leaving my daughter to wander around a park for hours with her friends isn’t ideal. (Anyway, have you seen the weather? Last time I looked, summer lasted around three days.)

However, I’ve also learnt – as have many of my contemporaries - that children thrive when engaged in organised activities with friends.

Which is why, over the years, I’ve drained my wallet on all sorts of activity camps. The symbiosis is perfect. The children return home tired, hungry and enthused. And I can work – enjoying all the more the time we do spend together since it is by design and not default.

Of course, whenever the subject of cutting school holidays is raised, many teachers and educationalists field the argument that school isn't a babysitting service.

I couldn’t agree more.

School is a place where our children’s minds are stretched and their imaginations are given flight. But standards are at a critically low level – in January an OECD study of basic skills ranked England lowest in the developed world for literacy, and second lowest for numeracy.

So surely there’s also a question of whether children need all that time off too. Especially those from poorer backgrounds who thrive during term but fall behind every summer because they don’t have the stimulation or structure which school – or expensive activity schemes – provide.

Thousands march through central London as teachers go on strike

00:20

One option would be for schools to end formal lessons for six weeks but hold state-sponsored holiday clubs which capitalise on learning in a more fun and informal setting. Teachers would still get their holidays but on rotation – as every office worker already has to do – with university undergraduates brought in to provide extra hands.

Education – formal or informal – can be a child’s passport to a rich and meaningful life. Meanwhile our economy is oiled by working parents – in particular small business owners – who are unable to quit the wheel.

With such matters in mind, the time has come for our school holidays to be cut – to a maximum of three weeks.

The alternative is to revert to using children for summer agricultural labour – a daft idea. But to my mind, only as daft as giving our youngsters a six-week break.